Cardiology Course FM

Today we're exploring infectious myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites and other pathogens. It can strike a healthy young athlete after a simple cold, follow a bout of dengue or scrub typhus, or present as chest pain that looks exactly like a heart attack. Most patients recover completely, but some develop fulminant shock within hours, and others slowly progress to dilated cardiomyopathy. We'll cover the pathogens, how to make the diagnosis, and how to treat and follow these patients.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today's topic is one of the most dangerous infections in medicine — bacterial infective endocarditis. It can hide behind a simple fever, present as a stroke, a kidney problem or back pain, and destroy a heart valve within days. Despite modern antibiotics and surgery, around one in five patients still die in hospital. We'll cover who gets it, how to diagnose it, how to choose antibiotics, when to send for surgery, and how to prevent it.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

In our last episode we explored restrictive cardiomyopathy — the stiff heart that cannot fill. Today we turn to its great mimic: constriction. Patients with constrictive physiology often arrive with a swollen abdomen, swollen legs and a heart that looks almost normal on the echo — and many are labelled as liver disease or cardiomyopathy for years. Yet this is one of the few causes of heart failure that can be cured. We'll cover the causes, the diagnosis, how to separate it from restrictive cardiomyopathy, and the treatment — from anti-inflammatory drugs to surgery.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're focusing on the least understood member of the cardiomyopathy family: restrictive cardiomyopathy. It's the heart that pumps reasonably well but cannot fill. Patients arrive with swollen legs, a swollen abdomen and breathlessness, and are often treated for liver disease or kidney disease for months before anyone thinks of the heart. We'll cover the causes — from amyloidosis to endomyocardial fibrosis — how to diagnose them, how to separate restriction from constrictive pericarditis, and how modern therapies are changing outcomes.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're tackling a topic that every doctor meets, from the casualty department to the outpatient clinic: arrhythmias. Some rhythm disturbances are harmless and simply need reassurance. Others can kill within minutes. The real skill lies in telling them apart — quickly, calmly and correctly. We'll cover benign and malignant arrhythmias, how to diagnose them, and how to treat and manage them in the long term.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today's topic covers some of the most fascinating and fast-moving areas in cardiology: the cardiomyopathies — diseases of the heart muscle itself. From the young athlete who collapses on the field, to the elderly man with heart failure and carpal tunnel syndrome, to the woman whose heart balloons after a sudden shock, cardiomyopathies are diverse, often genetic, and increasingly treatable with targeted therapies. We'll cover classification, diagnosis, treatment and long-term management.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

In our last episode, we discussed rheumatic heart disease, an inflammatory disease of the heart valves. Today we widen the lens to the whole family of inflammatory heart diseases — myocarditis, pericarditis, infective endocarditis, cardiac sarcoidosis, the heart in autoimmune diseases and vasculitis, and the role of inflammation in coronary artery disease itself. We'll talk about diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we turn to a disease that has largely disappeared from wealthy countries, yet still affects tens of millions of people, mostly children and young adults, in India, Africa, the Pacific and among indigenous communities: rheumatic heart disease. It's entirely preventable, yet it remains one of the leading causes of cardiovascular death in young people worldwide. We'll cover how it develops, how to diagnose acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, the latest treatments, and how we can prevent it.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

In our last two episodes, we explored haemodynamics and the right ventricle. Today we follow the blood a little further — into the lungs, where the heart and the lungs meet. We'll discuss pulmonary blood flow and alveolar ventilation, how they're matched, what happens when they're mismatched, and how this explains hypoxaemia in heart failure, pulmonary embolism, shunts, pulmonary oedema and critical illness. We'll also cover diagnosis and treatment.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

For decades, cardiology has focused on the left ventricle — its ejection fraction, its arteries, its failure. But there's another ventricle, often called the forgotten chamber, which quietly determines whether patients with heart failure, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension, valve disease and critical illness live or die: the right ventricle. Today we'll explore why it's so often ignored, how it works, how to assess it, the conditions that damage it, and how to treat right ventricular failure.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.